Yes, Odie is a real coyote
Katie Hunter’s family welcomes canine to Pine Ridge
By Kevin Abourezk
The coyote pup came to the family in a box, all curled up and quiet, so quiet.
He wasn’t like the raucous and whiny dog puppies that Katie Hunter’s family had raised on their 320-acre property near Kyle, South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
The coyote just stayed silent in his kennel.
Some friends found the coyote and seven of his brothers and sisters about four months ago huddled in a den while they were out riding horses and moving cattle.
Knowing her husband Derek was a hunter, they asked his family if they wanted one of the coyotes.
Odie the coyote on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Photo courtesy Katie Hunter
The family did, and they worked hard to domesticate the coyote, holding the pup as much as possible and petting him and taking him with them wherever they went. When people met the coyote, they nearly all asked the same question.
“Is that a real coyote?”
The Hunter family treated him like one of their two dogs, two hanging tree border collies named Rocko and Butch.
They even gave the young coyote a name: Odie.
“We did pretty good,” said Hunter, a 31-year-old citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. “The only thing I couldn’t get him to not do is be aggressive with his food.”
Karson Hunter, 1, plays with a coyote her family adopted on their land near Kyle, South Dakota. Photo courtesy Katie Hunter
Odie becomes territorial any time he’s given food, growling at anyone who comes near.
Hunter said she had hoped her family could domesticate the coyote, but eventually Odie’s wild nature got the better of him.
He had always occasionally slept outside under a bush.
“Eventually, he wouldn’t come back inside,” Hunter said.
Odie recently left the family altogether, though Hunter’s husband later found him living in a den on a hill not far from their home.
The coyote still comes around, and the family even puts out a bowl of dog food on the other side of the fence for him every morning. And whenever the couple’s three daughters are outside playing, they often see Odie peeking at them from the tall grass beyond their fence.
Karson Hunter, 1, is shown here with a coyote her family adopted on their land near Kyle, South Dakota. Photo courtesy Katie Hunter
Recently, the couple’s 1-year-old was playing in pothole after a rain, her hands and feet covered in mud.
She looked up from her games to see Odie looking at her from behind the fence.
“Coyote, coyote, coyote!” the baby yelled.
She began waddling toward the coyote, but Odie started backing away from her.
Hunter captured the moment with her camera. In one, the baby is standing before the fence facing the camera, and Odie stands behind her, just beyond the fence.
Some people have asked Hunter whether she’s concerned about her children being around the animal.
She said she sometimes worries about Odie, but she also feels like the coyote is still part of the family, a quiet guardian watching their borders.
“We hope that he goes and lives on his own, but it’s just kind of cool to have him around,” Katie Hunter said. “We kind of feel that he’s protecting us.”
Her 6-year-old daughter, Kaia, is tasked with feeding the dogs and Odie every day.
Kaia said she likes that Odie hasn’t wandered too far.
“I like that he plays, and I like that he has his little home,” she said. “He’s growing up every day.”
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